April is Counseling Awareness Month, and as a counselor/educator, I’d like to focus on the healing counselors bring to clients.
When facing challenges that aren’t easily solved or traumatic experiences that negatively affect thoughts, feelings, or behaviors, counselors provide us a space, both literal and metaphorical, to make sense of our experiences, validate our truths, and figure out our new normal.
Over time, storytelling traditions have evolved from “oral histories” into “digital documentations.” We email, text, IM, Snapchat, Instagram, podcast, Facebook, Photoshop, blog, vlog, and narrate our stories in as many electronic formats as we are able to master.
When words take up too much space, we use emojis to convey information. The fact that there are over 2800 universally accepted emojis suggests to me that hieroglyphics, ironically, have come back into fashion.
Still there are times we need to share our stories, one-on-one, and to know that we have been heard and validated. That’s what counselors are trained to do. Counselors don’t “suspend belief” they “suspend disbelief.” They accept your truth as your reality and meet you where you’re at. Counselors won’t solve your problems for you, but help you find the tools you need to solve them on your own. They empower us to gain control over our thoughts, our feelings, and our behavior, even if our world is spinning out of control.
When you need someone to listen, withhold judgment, and help you find solutions, a counselor is the perfect choice for the job.
I’m Suzanne Degges-White and that’s my perspective.
